We announced today a technical partnership with Microsoft. The goal of this partnership is very simple - and very transparent: ensure interoperability of Microsoft systems with the rest of the information system. Nobody can ignore the fact that IT systems are made of a combination of open source and closed source technologies, of databases and packaged applications, of legacy and SaaS systems, of… you name it, it’s probably in there!

Interoperability is the core of our business, and it’s a subject that is close to my heart (this is why Talend is a founding member of the OSA, for example). So when Sam Ramji from Microsoft invited us to their Open Source Lab in Redmond, and offered to help us work better with their systems, we decided to use these resources for the greatest benefit of our users. And we also liked the fact that only very few vendors are admitted in the lab: MySQL, Firefox, XenSource and now Talend are among the chosen ones. A clear tribute to Talend’s success.

Specifically, our work with Microsoft was three-pronged: improving our performance on Windows (including Windows 2008), supporting SQL Server 2008, and providing connectors for the Microsoft Dynamics applications.

Of course, this does not lower our commitment to the support of open source technologies: Linux operating systems, open source databases and packaged applications, etc. Open source is also freedom of choice, and interoperability between all systems is the path to this freedom of choice.

Bertrand